Just wanted to let you guys know about a personal project. Since I played Time Gal on Sega CD, I've always wanted to see the original laserdisc version. I thought the Sega CD version was the only thing there was. Recently, I found out that it was released for Saturn and PS1. I franticly went searching for it, and found a copy (along with Ninja Hayate!!!). Now, with Time Gal, Ninja Hayate, and Road Blaster for PS1, I'm going through the process of giving them a face lift. I want to make 640x480 versions with improved visuals. I was just going to make this for a personal DVD, but now, I'm curious about the possiblity of having some basic playability in Daphne. I won't be able to do the graphic overlays or multiple option selections (as in Time Gal), but again, maybe some basic play would be possible. That's a ways off though, and I'm not even thinking about that right now . All I'm thinking about now, is improving the visuals to be as close to the LD as possible.

The differences below may be subtle to most people, but if you watch them both, you'd see quite a difference (I did, anyway). Just thought I'd let you guys in on my personal project. Below are some examples. These are very early processing settings. I'm still tweaking them. I see a lot of mess I can clean up, but with raising resolution, and cleaning up... there's a big balancing act as many methods counteract other methods. I tried to improve the color, make smooth, visible outlines, and some subtle color smoothing (this is a very sensitive adjustment as it can remove detail from other things). Enough babble though.. check out below.

Nice work! I always wanted to give that a try, since the PSX versions of those games look surprisingly good.

I'm extremely fussy about quality when it comes to archiving laserdisc video. However, I find that when actually playing games in Daphne, the video quality isn't a huge issue. (Most of the time I use very small test MPEGs.) With the cleanup you've done, the PSX discs should be more than sufficient sources for Daphne-compatible footage.

Two things would be needed to make these playable in Daphne:

1) A framefile that gives starting frame numbers for each of the clips from the CD. These can be arbitrary (1000 file1.m2v, 2000 file2.m2v, etc.), since we don't have the original ROMs expecting certain frame numbers. If the conversion/processing tools can be run from a script/batch file, then an "xxx2DAPH" converter would even be possible.

2) A new game driver in the Daphne code. While it is *possible* to hack the ROMs from an existing game (for which Super Don would probably be a good choice), it would probably be better to make a generic game driver in the Daphne code itself. This has been discussed a few times, and doesn't seem prohibitively difficult. It could parse a 'ROM' with a list of scenes, moves, timing, frame numbers, and branches to other scenes. Scoring and 'skinnable' overlay graphics would be nice, too.

This would open up all sorts of opportunities for "fan ROMs" to make games from various sources.

Unfortunately, I'm still trying to fix MACK3, so I won't be working on this any time soon. Still, if someone takes this on, I'd be glad to help with the design.

Thanks! Heheh yeah, right now it looks like a 5th generation SVHS tape of the LD . But I hope to improve my settings. As far as a TG2DAPH converter goes, I'll have to look into STR (PS1) extraction tools. As far as I know, none can be controlled at the command line level, but there are a few out there, so it may be possible. STR files can't just be copied off the original PS1 CD. They are a combination of mode1 and 2 on the CD, so it has to be pulled out deeply. I'll look at a ???2DAPH converter to see what tools are used and how.

Is the framefile a text file in a specific, documented format? I haven't even downloaded Daphne, so I don't know what's involved with the documentation, but I adore Daphne's existence. I can't do much with it since I don't own any LDs. I did buy the DL 20th Anniversary DVD pack though, and may give that conversion kit a try. Man... I've gotten just about every version of DL and Space Ace that has come down the pike... starting with the Commodore 64 version (which I personally think is great!) to the EGA PC versions, to 3DO (I like the cleanup they did for Space Ace), to every DVD version that has been released (how was I supposed to know a 20th Anniversary pack was coming ) and plenty in between. It's strange that I haven't jumped on Daphne... but after all this, it wouldn't seem right to play a version this good. hahaha.

Thanks for your work, Warren. That idea about a generic game driver sounds nice. I do think it's more important to get the REAL games working first, but I'm excited about anyone taking that project on.

So, what would I have to do to get Time Gal working if the original Time Gal roms were dumped? Since I have all of the videos here, would I test different orders of videos until I get the placement right to match the ROM? I'm sure Daphne would have to be modified to recognize the Time Gal roms. I'd like to help where I can.

2) make sure the PSX game has *all* the footage from the LD and create a framefile by aligning the footage to the LD.

This method, of course, requires that you have the roms and disc to be accurate. Warren's method may be a bit more feasible since it's not likely that the PSX disc has all the LD footage. Not exactly "emulation", but it would be playable.

However, there has been a semi-recent report that a Time Gal machine may be within grasp. I'll try to follow up on this rumor.

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